Milestones

I  find milestones to be bittersweet.  It's great and exciting  when your baby rolls  over for the first time, when they learn to sit, eat, get their first tooth, say their first words and take their first steps but they all signify a change that your baby is growing up.

4 days old

We reached one of those milestones tonight.

Since Sebastian's birth we have always remained  with him while he drifted off to sleep.   We co-slept with him for the first 7 months of his life and then once he was transferred to his crib there was a bit of time in which we would put him down to bed in his crib drowsy and he would drift off to sleep.

Once Seb transferred to a toddler bed and he began to get up from bed the moment we put him down for the night we decided that we would remain in the room with him until he fell asleep.  We would always take turns, with Jamie remaining in the room one night and me the next, and we would hold his hand and/or gently stroke his forehead and sing him lullabies as he drifted off to sleep.

When we moved to our new home this continued, but now that he was in a regular sized twin bed  we would crawl into bed with him and remain with him, even having a nap ourselves at times, while he fell asleep.

I know a lot of people who frown on this and believe that children need to learn how to fall asleep on their own, but we naturally follow the path of attachment parenting.  We always took this time to cuddle and to talk about his day as we listened to lullabies.  We have had friends scoff at us and eyes rolled when one of us has slipped upstairs for 20 minutes to stay with Sebastian while he falls asleep but I would never have changed it for the world.

7 months old

You see, I knew that one day we wouldn't be needed.  That one day Sebastian would feel secure enough to drift off to sleep on his own.  I firmly believed, and still do, that it was important that he knew we would never leave him alone and scared.  The dishes could wait.  The tv shows could wait.  Everything could wait if it meant that our little boy was learning that he could trust his parents to be there for him, and we were.  And I also knew that getting cuddles from your baby is something they may possibly out grow and that once a moment is past, you can never get it back.  That is why it is so important to cherish these little moments now and appreciate the time you do have with your child because you never know when those moments will end. 

For us, that moment ended tonight.

I'm glad that Sebastian came to this on his own terms.  Another milestone for Sebastian and another bittersweet moment for a mommy who is so proud of her boy growing up but so sad that these little moments are passing us by.

Winter Weekend Getaway 2012

We just got home yesterday from a lovely weekend up north at Cedar Grove Lodge.  Not too sure if anyone will remember this or not, but the last time we were there was two years ago and I had blogged about the trip here.

Anyways, I love this place.  You get your own cottage with firewood and all your meals are provided.  The winter equipment is all free to use and by the end of lunch on your last day you almost feel as if you are saying good bye to your family. I was actually secretly hoping that the 15-20 cm of snow that was in the forecast would start dumping before we left so we would have to stay, but alas, it just wasn't so.

One of the main reasons we wanted to go this year is that we have not been having much of a winter.  We've been able to get out to go ice skating on a downtown outdoor rink but we haven't had enough snow to go tobogganing or snow shoeing at all.  So because of this, we thought it would be nice to head up north for the weekend.

Well, when we left on the Friday it was snowing! And was it ever!  The buses in our City and all the school buses had been canceled due to the snow so we were a little worried about the roads but by the time we left shortly after noon the roads were clear.

We arrived shortly before check in at 4 p.m. and  instantly fell in love with our cottage.  Last time we were there we stayed in Blue Bird but this time we tried Grey Owl.  It definitely didn't look as rustic on the outside but inside, it was perfect for the 3 of us and the big picture window overlooking the lake was beautiful.

The cottage

Living room view 1

Living room view 2

The next day after breakfast we went down to the lake and put on our ice skates.  We were initially worried that we weren't going to be able to go skating  since this winter has been so unreasonably warm, but thankfully, it was safe for us to skate on.  We spent the morning skating followed by tobogganing and taking a hike in the woods.  After lunch the snow started to fall and it continued to fall.  We went skating again on the lake and then spent some time indoors playing board games, drinking hot cocoa and playing in the activity room in the main lodge.  The snow continued to fall throughout the night and both of my boys were so tuckered out by all our activities that they were both sound asleep before 8 p.m.!  I just sat by the fire drinking wine and reading while watching the snow fall.   It was bliss!

The next morning we played in the fresh snow and returned to the activity room in the main lodge.  I swear, if Sebastian had his way he would spend all his time in this room!  I find it sparse, but for some reason, he absolutely loves it!

After lunch we finished packing up, said good-bye to our servers and fellow "Grover's" and hit the road.  Sebastian slept the entire way back and said he couldn't wait to go back next year.  I can't either!

Staying warm out on the lake

My handsome man

Hello!

One of the views from the lake

There had been so much snow the Lodge didn't have time to clear the rink so we were lazy and just shovelled a path wide enough for us to skate on!

The lone skater

The main lodge

Relaxing by the fire

Our view

Playing in the games room

Playing board games in the main lodge

Saying good-bye

Deep Thoughts....

While sitting listening to Sebastian read a book this morning he turns to me and asks, "How come the word big is so small and the word little is so big?"

Our Holidays in Pics

Decorating the tree

One of the many places we found Elfred

Playing with cousins in Michigan

Poor Elfred!  We hoped he didn't think the reindeer were real!

Elfred hanging off the Advent Calendar

Elfred on the wreath

Elfred wanting to be a  part of the centrepiece

The Good Lovelies, Dublin United Church Dec 21, 2011

Our walk in the woods

Sebastian's note from Santa

This is the only present Sebastian asked for.  A Jack-in-the-Box!

Our family (don't mind the hands on the hip.  It's an inside joke for us...)

Our backyard at night

Finally snow!!!

Four Generations

Our Holidays

I have been attempting to update our blog for the past few nights and keep getting distracted, so hopefully tonight will be the night!  We have had such a wonderful holiday that it's hard to know exactly where to start, however, I must start somewhere!  So, I'm going to try to do a quick review of our holiday and  what we've been up to, and I'll  probably add  pictures later as we have a lot!

We started the season in early December when we went to get our tree.  Every year since moving we've gotten a live tree and this year wasn't any different, however this year, the tree did not fall on me, which is always a good sign!

We took our time decorating the house and luckily I remembered to get the Advent Calendar out and filled with Hershey Kisses and ready for when Sebastian returned home from school on the 1st.  As Sebastian has gotten older each year I've noticed how much more of a great little helper he is with decorating the house.  When he first started decorating the tree when he was 2 he was only given the ornaments that would not break, but now at 5 he's able to handle the breakables and is also able to decorate more of the tree, which is a lot of fun.  He also helped me figure out where to put things around the house and as he told me at one point, "You know, it's not always about where you want to put things Mommy!"  After explaining that I've been doing this for years without any input and that I tend to be a control freak (Shhh!  Don't tell anyone!) Sebastian seemed to understand that he had to gently guide me with his ideas!   Needless to say, it was really nice sharing the time it took to decorate the house with him and I was also reminded that things don't need  to be "perfect" to be beautiful!

This year Elfred was also introduced into our home.  If you are familiar with the Elf on the Shelf, then you will know all about Elfred our little house Elf.  Elfred came to visit us on the 1st of December and he went back to the North Pole with Santa on Christmas Eve.  Although it was nice having Elfred hanging out with us,  with us trying to figure out where he was every morning, he really wasn't here to tell Santa whether Sebastian had been naughty or nice.  For one, I don't agree with using such things as Elves to put fear into children to behave but secondly, Sebastian isn't the type of kid who needs such methods of social control.  He genuinely is a good kid, despite by mommy bias!

I was also smart this year and purchased gifts throughout the year so there was no mad scrambles to the mall nor the need for last minute wrapping so our days leading up to the holidays were quite relaxing as everything was done.  Jamie, Nonee and I attended Sebastian's Holiday concert on Tuesday December 20th and as a treat, as the children at Sebastian's school collected and donated 40 boxes of food to the local food bank, Sebastian was able to wear his pajama's to school on the Thursday.

As Sebastian didn't have school on the 23rd and Jamie was off we spent the day playing, watching Christmas specials and going for a hike in the woods behind our house.  It took us about an hour to do a loop and it was a nice walk, albeit cold, with the ground lightly dusted with snow.  We saw lots of deer prints, but no deer.

Christmas Eve was spent with Sebastian's Nonee & Papa at our house and we were able to Skype with Aunt Becky in B.C., which was an extra special treat as she did not come home this year for Christmas.  We spent the evening grazing on food, being merry and Sebastian went to bed excited with the prospect of Santa coming in the night.

The next morning Sebastian and I tip toed downstairs to see if Santa had been here and he had!  Santa left Sebastian a note thanking him for the cookies and milk and Elfred left Sebastian a note too saying good-bye and reminding him that he may be back next year.  Sebastian waited patiently for his Nonee and Papa to arrive before we opened our gifts and enjoyed a lovely breakfast of Overnight Raspberry French Toast.  We then relaxed for a couple of hours before heading over to Nonee and Papa's for Christmas dinner with the family.

The following day Uncle Danny came for a visit and Sebastian excitedly showed him his gifts.  It was nice having Uncle Danny over for a sleep over and we're always sad to see him leave as he is so much fun to have around.

We spent the rest of Boxing Day playing with Sebastian's new toys and we realized, when we went out today, that we hadn't left the house since Boxing Day!  However, we're not complaining as we felt nestled and cozy in our house playing a number of games, such as table top soccer, Cars 2 Monopoly, Pinball, Guess Who and Cadoo as well as completing a number of puzzles, Lego sets and creating Spirograph and Shrinky-Dink artwork. It's really nice seeing that 3 days later Sebastian is still getting a lot of enjoyment out of his gifts!

And as yesterday marked our first real snow of the season we headed outside into the backyard and played in the snow for a bit.  Today, with the snow still falling, we headed downtown for lunch and then went ice skating at the new Market Square.  This was the first time the 3 of us have been skating together and it was so nice seeing Sebastian's skating lessons pay off - man is he fast!  After we were done we got a treat at B-Chocolate and then headed to Planet Bean for some hot cocoa. It was definitely a great way to spend the day and I think we are all going to be sad when Jamie has to return to work next week!  As much as Sebastian and I keep ourselves busy during our days, there is something so special about the 3 of us spending so much quality time together that it's almost magical.  It definitely makes me appreciate all that we have.

Tomorrow we are going to do exactly what we've been doing all week... staying in our pj's until mid-morning, playing games and playing in the snow.  We'll add Skyping with Grandpa to the list as it's his birthday tomorrow, but other than that, we'll do exactly what we've been doing all week.  Not a bad way at all to spend the holidays!

Hoping everyone has had magical moments throughout the holidays!
Kim

Merry Christmas!